Almost no coach in Edmonton Oilers history has had as much success without winning the Stanley Cup as current head coach, Kris Knoblauch.
Despite his success, there have been real struggles by his team this season with the most recent example being the Oilers dropping their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2. This comes after suffering a 2-1 loss against the New Jersey Devils earlier in the week.
Knoblauch currently sits fifth on the Oilers all-time games coached record but has a points percentage second to only former coach, Jay Woodcroft in the regular season. In the postseason, only two have a win-loss percentage above Knoblauch, being Glen Sather and John Muckler. The difference being both of those coaches have Stanley Cup rings.
Does it make sense to fire Knoblauch?
Heading into this season, the Oilers gave Knoblauch a multi-year contract extension, showing him that they believe in his abilities to guide this team to a championship. This vote of confidence comes despite shuffling around the rest of the coaching staff from the goaltending coach to his direct assistants.
Then after the Oilers struggled for the first two months of the season, the seat under Knoblauch started to warm, especially as the Oilers sat outside the playoff picture. Now, thee teams record has turned around and they have played better. Yet, the question still remains if he is truly the right man for the job.
Oilers defence and depth struggles
One of the most damning arguments in favour of letting go of the Oilers bench boss is the fact that the team defence has been abysmal at times this year. As of right now, the team sits seventh in shot attempts against per 60 minutes but 18th in expected goals against per 60 (evolving-hockey.com).
This shows that the team is not giving up a ton of chances against, relative to the league but have been giving up some quality chances against.
On top of the defence, the club has struggled mightily to produce offensively, especially further down the lineup. Oilers general manager Stan Bowman made wide sweeping changes to the personnel on the team to revamp their depth up front, to middling results. Their top rookies of Matt Savoie and Isaac Howard have largely struggled throughout the season, despite recent positive signs.
There are also the signings of forward Andrew Mangiapane that has now seen his name in trade rumours, as well as the club terminating the contract of David Tomasek. Then, there is the issues with rugged forward Trent Frederic who has three goals and seven points in 74 games as an Oiler between the regular season and playoffs.
Knoblauch's job should be safe for now
There is a real argument to be made that Knoblauch has struggled to get more out of his players, especially those not immediately playing with their superstars, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Although of course, some of this blame lies on the Oilers management who failed to adequately address the goaltending.
For now, his record should speak for itself and given both times he has made the playoffs he has been able to take the club to the Stanley Cup finals, there should be some grace given to him. We will have to wait and see, there can be no wasted season in the McDavid era, especially after his short term deal that he signed.
It could force Edmonton management to get very brash if it means that they may lose their generational franchise piece.